The court says the detained pro-Palestinian student demonstrated a “significant evidence” violation of her constitutional rights.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the United States has ordered the government to move Palestinian Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk to Vermont for the court to assess the legal challenges to detention.
In Friday’s ruling, William’s Session District Court Judge found that Oztalc, now in Louisiana, presented “significant evidence” to support allegations that her detention violated her freedom of speech and due process rights.
Ozturk was arrested and revoked his visa in March. Supporters say she was targeted for the manipulation she co-authored last year and criticised Tufts University for rejecting a student government resolution asking schools to sell from Israeli companies.
The session writes that for these claims to be evaluated, it is necessary to hear the Ozturk case in court.
“The court concludes that this case will continue in this court, along with Oztalc, which is physically present for the rest of the case,” he wrote.
The judge relocated Oztalc to the government until May 1, and set up a bond hearing on May 9 to assert temporary release.
Ozturk was sent to a Louisiana detention facility. Critics are part of the government’s efforts to keep detainees away from supporters and lawyers, and are placed in conservative legal districts.
A Tufts University student was arrested on March 30 near his home in Massachusetts. Surveillance footage of the incident shows her not identifying herself as a law enforcement agency, but approaching her on the street and grabbing her hand.
Critics describe the incident as a escalation.
Her student visa was rescinded as part of a massive crackdown by President Donald Trump’s administration on foreign students who have been protested or criticised by Israeli war on Gaza.
The session confirmed that the only identifiable evidence the US government is using to detain and deport Ozturk is the manipulation.
“Her evidence supports her claim that the government’s motivation or purpose for her detention is to co-authorize opinions in campus newspapers that criticized the Tufts University administration and to cool the political speeches of others,” Sessions said.
“The government has so far provided no evidence to support an alternative legitimate motivation or purpose for Ms. Ozturk’s detention.”
He also emphasized that the initial amendments protecting freedom of speech have been “long-lived” for non-citizens living in the United States.
The case session is overseen. It’s not a broader push to challenge Ozturk’s detention and deport her.
The issue of deportation is reviewed through a separate system in which non-citizens raise cases before immigration judges working within the administrative sector. As with independent judiciary, it is not another part of government.
Advocates say immigration judges often “rubber stamps” decisions of the government agencies they work for. A Louisiana immigration judge denied Ozturk’s release on bail earlier this week.
Immigration cases can be appealed to the Immigration Appeals Committee, the administrative agency. As a last resort, immigrants can petition their case before the Court of Appeal, which is part of the usual judicial system.
The Trump administration emphasizes that the law gives the issue of immigration a leeway, which provides the presidency with broad authority to put concerns about freedom of speech and legitimate processes.
To approve the Secretary of State, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that grants the United States the authority to exclude non-citizens who believe they will “have a serious adverse effect on foreign policy.”
However, some of Friday’s ruling could have drastic implications for other students facing deportation, as well as Ozturk and other students.
The session dismissed the concept that detained immigrants can ignore constitutional rights due to the management process.
The judge said the government argued that immigration law “gives virtually endless, irreconfirmable power to detain individuals for weeks or months, even if detention is patently unconstitutional.”